I'm not asking this to sound difficult, I'm just still pretty new to coffee.

My first grinder was/is a Gaggia MDF. I like it, I pull decent shots from it from time to time and generally speaking it works just fine. When I first acquired it, I completely disassembled it and cleaned it so it looks brand new (it was the old one from the 80s so its all metal). I also modded it to be stepless.

Fast forward a little while, I just picked up a lightly used NS MCI. It has some grounds still in it so I'm not using it until I have time to completely clean the thing. I've partially disassembled the machine, and while it is extremely quiet, I don't understand how it costs almost $700 new while the MDF is only $250. Is there going to be some huge jump in quality once I start grinding? Because the burrs seem very similar. I am ready to be enlightened.

The mci is just an overpriced piece of rubbish that $500 of it is the ns brand name.

Kind of like the low priced LA pavoni crap sold at Walmarts website.

A Rocky is better than an mci. And half the price.

There are a few others like this such as the elektra grinder. But I doubt they can touch the mci markup

As far as I know the NS is a relabeled Eureka MCI. I have a doserless Eureka at the moment.

That's definitely not a piece of rubish. Burrs and motor are way better than the MDF. And in my opnion the Eureka easlily outperfoms a Rocky. The Eureka performs above class. More like a 63 mm flat burr grinder. Also great ergonomics. Just some clumping but no channeling at all.

But of course there are different opnions.

New v old price isn't really a very fair comparison .
The little eureka grinder is kitchen friendly and has decent burrs and motor . Whether you would says it's better than an mdf based on new v old prices is debatable . Mci v rocky . I'd take the mci and its step less adjustment every time .
The mci can clump but a a it of wdt solves that

bas wrote:As far as I know the NS is a relabeled Eureka MCI. I have a doserless Eureka at the moment.

That's definitely not a piece of rubish. Burrs and motor are way better than the MDF. And in my opnion the Eureka easlily outperfoms a Rocky. The Eureka performs above class. More like a 63 mm flat burr grinder. Also great ergonomics. Just some clumping but no channeling at all.

But of course there are different opnions.

I suppose I was a bit harsh but none of these grinders are worth it.

For what it is worth, my first "real" grinder was a Gaggia MDF that I have recently replaced with a NS MCF (doser version of the MCI). I do not have any other exposure to other grinders, so I cannot comment on how the NS rates compares to others. BUT, the MCF is a substantial improvement over the Gaggia MDF. At least in my cups. Though my MDF copy was one of the plastic ones, I don't know if the older ones were any different.

Hey, first post.

So it would be worth it to clean it up and use it as my main grinder?